Seriously, this post is meant to explain why a link on Lookout Colorado yesterday evening went dead shortly after it went live. Further, I think the situation gives us a good chance to discuss blog theory, if you will.

Is it really possible to pull a blog? Or as my friend Mark Eddy put it to me this morning over coffee and vitamin water, isn’t shutting down a blog post the Old Media equivalent of running around town yanking newspapers from racks and doorsteps?

A futile effort.

And how should a news organization like The Denver Post handle blogging about scoops it plans to run in the print edition?

First, the explanation for what happened with the dead link (which I plan to update later today).

We’re more than a little puzzled by a report that tech-savvy Congressman Jared Polis boasted over the weekend that new media killed the Rocky Mountain News.

Polis, D-Boulder, said as keynote speaker at Netroots Nation in Westminster: “We killed the Rocky Mountain News. … Long live new media.”

Watching the Rocky pass was deeply painful to us here at The Post. We can’t imagine anyone taking any glee in that venerable institution’s demise.

We love new media. (This blog is proof of that.) But we think so-called old media has more than done its part to transform itself by providing constantly updating news and opinion sites on which the blogosphere depends. We think, in fact, the term “old-media” is really a misnomer, defining nothing. It’s not as if there are any print-only products out there anymore.

And if newsrooms and opinion pages like ours are worth killing, then why did Polis come to The Post seeking our endorsement?

Is Polis singling out the Rocky, which had a reputation as the conservative paper in town? Is that smart, even for a Democrat? He wrote an op-ed piece recently for the Wall Street Journal, and that’s also considered a conservative organ.

Don’t we still want a healthy debate in this country?

We’ve sent an e-mail to his office seeking comment.

Update:
The congressman (or someone posting on our site as the congressman) has this to say:

The end of the Rocky Mountain News was a blow to all of us in Colorado. We were proud to have a city that had two powerful voices, two daily venues for informing the public, and a diversity of editorial voices. Not only has Colorado lost over 200 jobs, but the voice of the RMN has been silenced.

Indeed, some of the blame rests with new media. While there are many other factors that have contributed such as the recession and a decline in advertising, the very fact that we are discussing this issue here, in the online forum of the DP, is demonstrative of the rise of new media. The newspaper industry has yet to figure out how to monetize online traffic, and until they do, I worry not only about the demise of the RMN but I worry about the future of a strong third estate across our great nation.

Jared Polis

(We think he meant the fourth estate, meaning the press. The third estate is the peasantry.)

So, the Rocky Mountain News published its last edition yesterday. And I have to say that when we say kinda “Who killed the Rocky Mountain News?” we are all part of that (giggle) … we truly are. For better or for worse, and I would argue that it’s mostly for better.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.